Killzone 2 review (PS3)

Take away the graphics and this game still holds its own, whilst not being the best shooter around, it is certainly a strong contender. With the first game being a moderatly good game, the sequel had to impress, big time, futhermore the game had to live up to the expectations created via its infamous E3 2005 Trailer.
However, February quickly arrived and the game was met with overwhelming praise from critics and public alike, a year and 3 months on, how does the game hold up against the current releases?

Immediatly we are treated to a superb dose of voice acting on behalf of Brian Cox (X-men 2) in the role of Scolar Visari, patriarch to the Helghast Empire, from here on out the gamer follows the story of an ISA Special Forces Alpha Team, the team consists of some quite varied characters, including the notoriously bad mouthing Rico. The Story is quite generic, yet also plays out quite well, however the story isn't what pulls the gamers into this title, its the graphics...

Utilizing the Havok Engine, the game looks superb even a year after its release, perhaps not as graphically impressive as Crysis but definatly one of the best, if not THE best on consoles. The lighting in the game is fantastic and creates a huge level of atmosphere in the game.

Howver,without its graphics, how does the game fare against other FPS giants like the Halo series, Bioshock and *Shudders* Modern Warfare? Well, the first person cover system is good to see (Me loving cover based shooters and all) but apart from this its quite standard, not that that is incredibly bad. What is though, is the AI of the teammate bots, whilst not being as horrendous as Turok's, it doesnt quite match up to Gears of War's (Don't be mad, I'm obsessed with Gears, you should know this by now). The bots seem like bullet soakers, BUT, this problem seem's to have been adressed with the upcoming sequel so all is well.

Overall, the game is great. It is quite an achievement for an FPS to impress me and this game has, I can't help but feel that thats down to the graphics but still, a tremendous achievment on behalf of Guerrilla.

Sound
Brilliant voice acting and the sounds contribute to the feeling of epic shoot outs with the enemy.

8.5

Gameplay
Great fun, but nothing new other than the first person lean cover system.

8.8

Fun factor
Campaign is a blast, Online is good, good combination.

8.6

Online
With me liking teambased multiplayers I found the online enjoyable, however in comparison to my most played online titles (Gears of War 1/2) the game isnt quite as fun, but still enjoyable for a short amount of time.